Choose your La Ultra
Ladakh Runs
As the name suggests, this isn’t a race against anyone. It’s a run where you’ll get to know yourself a lot better. And yes, you can. You need to have done by February 2022 end, whatever distance you want to take part in. Yes, we can help you with a plan for the same. You have more than 90 days for February end and 150 days for the run up Wari La.
It’s not mandatory for running participants to register and attend the Fest, also, if someone wants to attend the Fest but not participate in the run, that’s alright too. Registration for Fest is separate from registration for the Run.
Registrations for Run & Fest will open on 15th December, but click below to let us know of your interest & we’ll keep you informed.
Route
11, 22, 33, & 55 k categories will start from Serthi Circle, and then move towards Wari La.
First 2 km are relatively flat and straight.
11 k category will take a u-turn where twin prayer wheels are on left at 5.5 k mark.
22 k category will take u-turn at 11 km mark.
33 and 55 k category will take u-turn at 16.5 k, point we love to call Wari La High Camp.
Again, last 2.5 kms are very flat.
Finish for 11, 22 & 33 k is the start line, i.e. Serthi Circle.
55 k runners now head towards Changa La, and take a u-turn after moving for 11 k.
They then retrace the route back to Serthi Circle and finish their endeavour. As you notice, the roads are amazingly good, almost like a runway. So, let’s runaway.
As for 111 km category, we are looking for a minimum of 50 participants before confirming it. There already has been a lot of interest even before formally announcing the run. Please click on link below to show your interest.
111 km category participants will run back to Leh. It’s pretty flattish.
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History So Very Far
The inception of a run on Leh-Manali highway happened way back in 2009 after Rajat, along with Melvin Barreto, had attempted to run from Manali to(wards) Rohtang Pass. They managed 30ish kms. Looking at the waves on Manali-Leh highway altitude map, they were convinced that it simply had to be run. Inspired by Badwater ultra in Death Valley, California, they wanted the run to be a similar distance, i.e. 217 kms. On discussing with friends, Rajat was told that they shouldn’t be copying a distance from anywhere else. That simply meant that it couldn’t be a lesser distance than 217. On a random google search for the significance of number 222, it said if you have stumbled upon this number, you are on the right track and you should carry on. This was the beginning of a love affair with repetitive numbers at La Ultra, which since then has had 11, 22, 33, 55, 111, 222, 333 and 555 categories.
When the idea was further discussed at Adventure wing, Army head quarters, New Delhi, since Ladakh is known for army presence, Rajat was first told that high altitude makes it an impossible project. But Rajat had been bitten by the bug and had done his homework. ‘What if we first acclimatised at higher altitude for a week or more and then ran it?’
Now officers anywhere don’t like being questioned, leave alone being told that someone has a solution to problem that they don’t. Their immediate response was, ‘No, civilians can’t do it.’ And that was it. This supposed impossible task for civilians simply had be proven possible. There was no other way around it.
Rajat was also told by his other friends and well wishers from business community, medical, esp. sports medicine, and local Ladhakis that he had gone insane, that he would go bankrupt, end up killing someone and how could low-landers possibly achieve this when high-landers couldn’t even fathom the idea..
Now it’s been a decade of making impossible yell it’s possible, by getting people to run those crazy distances, ranging from 111, 222, 333 to 555 kms in those inhospitable conditions..
It was after the 2013 edition, having organised the fourth La Ultra, Rajat had taken on the project to train ladies for a couch to 6 km. He realised that it’s a lot easier to push a nutcase who runs 111 km to run 222, and if someone ran 222, to whisper the right things in their ears and they would be kicked up doing 333, but zero to anything is a lot more difficult. And that was the birth of Get Off Your Arse initiative by him. As much as he has been a split personality through and through, on one hand making people push the human limits that even army had questioned to then making people with pain get back up and move, now he was on a mission to make literally everyone to move.